These slides live at https://andrew-quinn.me/modern-shell-slidy.html

• A more normal HTML version @ https://andrew-quinn.me/modern-shell/

What I hope you leave with

1. Use fzf
2. Use zsh (minimum)
3. Learn (some) vi
4. tldr >>= gpt >>= man

who am i

• hey i’m andrew
  • https://andrew-quinn.me/modern-shell/
  • https://twitter.com/zephyr_on_call
  • https://staging.bsky.app/profile/sonder.bsky.social
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/heiandrewquinn/
• 🇪🇺🇱🇷 => 🇮🇪🇺🇸 -> 🇫🇮
• northwestern grad 2020 - bs in ee + minor in math
• devops by day
• fullstack+ai by night (best w/ django/htmx)

why the shell?

• composability
• complexity
• speed

on speed

• 0.001- seconds: speed of unknowing
• 0.01 seconds: speed of instinct
• 0.1 seconds: speed of thought
• 1 second: speed of consciousness
• 10 seconds: speed of frustration
• 100 seconds: speed of switching to a competitor
• 1000+ seconds: speed of SaaS

let’s talk about fzf

• what is fzf
• how to install
• fzf for directory jumping
• fzf for command history
• fzf as repl

the rustification of tools

• rust is big now
• covering the classics
• grep => ripgrep
• find => fd
• cat => bat (i’m serious)

let’s talk about vi

• visual editor
• kind of a pain to learn
• learn it anyway
  • vscode extension
• exists everywhere*
• barely uses resources at all (cpu, ram)

why optimize for resources?

• csikszentmihalyi would like a word
• did you not remember speed
• engineering === optimization within constraints
• long battery life is good too

let’s talk about zsh

• bash is ubiquitous
• bash has a lot of problems
• Strictly speaking bash exists at a really uncomfortable saddle point between the need to be quick and user/flowstate-friendly, and the need to be robust as an automation tool and and
• tldr: you still gotta run your scripts tho
• may i recommend zsh

zsh + oh-my-zsh

• unlike bash, you get sick + actually useful plugins
• unlike fish, most of your scripts run fine w/o modifications

starship

• another rust project
• cross-platform shell … theme … thing
  • i like to just run it as is but install it everywhere

why optimize for beauty and fun?

• csikszentmihalyi would like a word